A Flock of Seagulls were really one of the bands that are generally regarded with breaking ground for other musical acts in the then, new video music scene. The wild and creative hairstyle by lead singer, keyboardist and former-hairdresser Michael “Mike” Score made them an international success with their techno sound and beats. The video A Flock of Seagulls I Ran, was also considered very creative and interesting at the time.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to be professional DJs in clubs that utilized videos as part of the environment then, loved playing “I Ran” since it appealed to people both as a great dance song but also hysterically entertaining to look at his hairstyle on a huge screen. This was a new and cutting-edge component to the club scene and music videos were just starting to shape the music industry.
A Flock of Seagulls I Ran reached #1 in several countries and is still a highly requested song today for professional DJs.
All professional DJs have a few songs we know will work in most situations young and old, Black and White, Rock, Reggae and Hip Hop. For me, Stevie Wonder Superstition is one of the songs for me. While others from the Motown era and beyond have reached higher international acclaim, Stevie has just continued to make great music and share with us his messages of hope, peace and the struggle with a forceful beats and rhythms.
I had the opportunity to see him live as a birthday present many years ago at Radio City Music Hall. A great show from a great performer. Stevie Wonder Superstition was one of the highlights.
When I first began as a professional DJ, I used to play Stevie Wonder Superstition on ’45’ nearly every show and was always accepted well. In fact, the old ’45s’ on vinyl when played too often would get ‘burned’ and make a noise from the groove it produced from over-play when played in the beginning. This is one of the records I needed to replace due to professional DJ burn. Today, I seem to still get that same response from all audiences. While it is easier to use Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna as back-up plans; I like to use call on my old friend Stevie Wonder Superstition.
Enjoy the performance of Stevie Wonder Superstition!
It is hard to imagine that there was a time music existed before The Beatles. I realize how short-sighted that is to write but still what’s on my mind. For those who were not born yet to witness Beatlemania, there is not really a way to accurately convey just how big they were and how quickly it happened. If you can visualize Beyonce, Lady GaGa, Akon, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus all wrapped into one band in its impact and complete domination of the Billboard charts. They were their only real competition for many years. In 1964, during the week of 4 April, the Beatles held twelve positions on the singles chart, including the top five. Just to make sure you understood what was just written, The Beatles had the top five songs and twelve in general! The Beatles First Visit to USA!
The influence of The Beatles still continues today. They were the avalanche that made the British Invasion what it became and paved the road for the British artists in America today. The mindset of peace and imagining a world with equality, respect and freedom for all are still with us. The legacy of The Beatles outlasted their actual careers together as a musical group. They were together for less than a decade and here we are almost forty years later still listening to and appreciating their greatness and artistry. From the days of cute ‘moptops’ to Sargeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and finally Let It Be, The Beatles have left their mark globally and definitely for me personally. The Beatles First Visit to USA!
I remember the first ’45’ I owned was The Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand. It is where this all started for me. In a world dominated by performers more interested in being noticed by paparazzi than trying to create world peace and love, groups like The Beatles are missed. Maybe it is time for some of the major acts of today to step-up and lead the way for the next generation. The Beatles First Visit to USA!
The Beatles First Visit to USA! Who will be the ones to do this?
It was June 30, 1985. America was in transition from the laid-back feeling of the 60’s and 70’s to an electronic culture with a new generation focused on different things than equality, peace and love. They were the beginning of the generation of ‘me’. And the ‘me’ generation had their owns interests and agendas, one of them in the front of the train was money and material possessions. So who better to write and place this in the face for all to see than Madonna Material Girl?
Her hit, Madonna Material Girl, marked this shift in cultural focus clearly with no apologies or excuses. She was bold enough to make a video demonstrating just who she and this new generation were in diamonds and glitter. It is hard to know whether she was writing about herself specifically or just making a statement but either way we all knew that the times has changed and money was now was the goal and direction of the country and individual. President Reagan had done his thing and we were an economically strong country, affluence was the norm not the exception among certain racial and cultural groups.
I am not certain the same video or song would hold the same impact and weight today as it did then. Affluence has been such an undercurrent that it is accepted as how we exist now. The days of sharing and leaving doors unlocked have been replaced by SAT prep classes and parents writing high school students college personal statements and having them proofed by a college entrance application proofreader. Today education is focused on tests, not learning. Students volunteer for resumes, not service today. Madonna forecasted this. Enjoy Madonna Material Girl!
I remember when my brother first brought home Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. For me as an adolescent, the music was so far out of my scope of what music was and could be I did not know what to do with it. It was another year or two later before I was able to appreciate the creative sounds and energy they produced. The album graced his turntable often during those years. Soon after, it became an old friend of mine as well, with Money Pink Floyd being one of the first songs that caught my attention. The rest of the album followed shortly.The album went on to become the longest running on Billboard charts in history, its run was an unbelievable 781 weeks! Yes, you read that correctly, this album was on the Billboard charts for 781 weeks! This is about fifteen years!
Let’s put that in perspective. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton together were U.S. Presidents for sixteen years. Seinfeld ran for nine years, Friends for ten, Miley Cyrus was sixteen when she released her first album and fifteen years is more than twice as long as World War II that had over 60 million casualties. It is hard to believe that Dark Side of the Moon was on Billboard longer than Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
What made this album so interesting was the creation of what we now can do easily and often through digital effects. Money Pink Floyd used alarms and heart-beats and cash registers to help the listener hear what they were tying to say through the amazing talents of engineer Alan Parsons. It changed the industry in many ways. Can you imagine the music industry today without musicians using non-musical sounds in their recordings?
Pink Floyd had the technical know-how to include rock, electronics, jazz and classic genres all into one album with a dose of blues guitar. Today their music is often associated with the album The Wall, which was a bigger hit commercially but did not last as long on the charts. There are rumors that if you play the album Dark Side of the Moon while watching the movie The Wizard of Oz that the music syncs with the scenes perfectly. I have never tried this but it has been widely talked about since the late 70’s.
Dark Side of the Moon was one of my favorite albums during my teen years and well into my twenties. It was one of the albums I listened to when I needed some peace or to clear my head.
We had been traveling for five days through Central Mongolia. The Russian van was full of dust and dry sand. There were seven of us total including the driver and guide. We spent time on camels, horses, foot and van learning and experiencing The Semi-Gobi Desert first-hand and felt the affects in our minds, bodies and clothes.
Our driver had tried to keep things alive by playing a cassette tape of traditional Mongolian music but the rocks and dry air must have finally done his tape in and it broke into little streams of brown plastic. That was yesterday.
We had stopped to eat some lunch in a deserted mostly flat area not far from the dirt road we had been traveling on all morning. While lunch was being put together, I took a short walk to get some space and quiet from the group. We had slept in Gers (Yurts) together and I was aching for some time with myself. I was standing and doing some stretching when in the background echoing through the small hills was an American voice with a beat. It was “Beautiful” Akon, the song. Everybody rose from their individual and collective slumber. I walked back to the group and a young couple we were traveling with got out of the van and were dancing together on the dry desert ground. I broke out laughing and was taken over and reminded of the power of music and a beat. It was only minutes later when the whole group sat down for some pasta, vegetables and tuna together and enjoyed a meal. After one year in South Korea and some time in Mongolia, hearing American music in English was such a relief and reminder of how far from home I was.
Never doubt the power of music and a beat, regardless of what you like or do not like to bring out the life and energy in us. I am sure we all have our own stories and experiences to share about times and places when music woke up a lost part of ourselves. It is no wonder music has been part of every culture for as long as records have been kept. On this day, it was “Beautiful” Akon.
I was walking down the streets of downtown Hong Kong in early August of last year, 2009 and was totally caught off guard by seeing and hearing this video played on big screen TVs in front of every music, electronic, t-shirt, snack bar and jewelry store with crowds of people standing and gawking. I do not know which surprised me more, the amount of shops and people watching or how captivated they were. It was as if they had never seen or heard music before in their lives, not just Michael Jackson; music or dance in general.
I have the image still in my head at how a man’s recent death had reached the attention of the global pop world with such force and energy. I remember the day that I heard the he had died. I was in South Korea at the time teaching English to young kids. For days, kids would walk up to me and ask me if I was Michael Jackson’s brother. As you know, in most of Asia the family name is first and given name is second. From their perspective, the name ‘Michael’ is a family name, not a given name. He was the talk of every young and old person for a month or two no matter whom I was speaking to.
I have wondered just what Michael Jackson had that nobody else could match. I used to play his stuff on vinyl in clubs when Off The Wall and Thriller were still on the charts and was amazed at how his music would transcend race, age, genre or taste. It was that forceful.
Today, one year after his passing, I maintain the awe I had when he was first releasing the videos from Thriller. He was doing things nobody had done before and spitting it out so quickly it was as if he found a muse the rest of us just talk about. I wonder what Michael Jackson’s legacy will be in twenty-five years from now? Will it be his music? His dancing? His choreography? His public image? Or maybe his general greatness and ability to create magic?
This is the second part of the Teen Dance Party Mix Series. Teen Dance Party Part I is more focused on 2012 with some 2011 & 2010 additions. Teen Dance Party Part II is more focused on 2011 & 2010 with some 2012 splashed-in to keep it fresh. Here is the link to Teen Dance Party Part I
Teen Dance Party Mix II
Teen Dance Party Mix Part II - DJ Mystical Michael
I am creating two of these Teen Dance Party Mixes for a Christmas Present for someone’s daughter. She is nine years old and is both a Classical Pianist and a lover of Pop Music that she can dance to. I figured these might be helpful for someone else as well, whether it be for a teenager having a Dance Party, a Sweet Sixteen or a client wanting to hire me for their Teen Dance Party. Most of the songs were released in 2012 but some of are from 2010 and 2011 as well to add some flavor.
Teen Dance Party Mix I
Teen Dance Party Mix Part I - DJ Mystical Michael
If you would like me to send you a CD version, please fill-out the Contact Form with your information and I will be glad to ship it to you. Here is the link to Teen Dance Party Part II
Each time I have had the opportunity to DJ and priovide music for The Hoboken International Film Festival, I leave feeling inspired and grateful. Last night was even more so than past years with the Hoboken International Film Festival.
Sometimes it takes a professional DJ more than one experience to figure out what works at such a special event. I think I nailed it last night! The festival founder and President, Kenneth Del Vecchio, appreciates 80’s Rock as the genre for the event. Rock, even 80’s Rock, is a rather large genre and needs some communication and understanding to get exactly what that means to each individual. To one person, 80’s Rock can mean Michael Jackson, to another it could be Journey, the next it might be Peter Gabriel or AC/DC. And we still have not covered the whole genre. Even though 80’s Rock was the genre we were featuring, I still made certain to include Rock Music from other periods, Motown, Soul and few others sprinkled in. One of the presenters, actor Mike Rivera, when he arrived at the podium, stated he liked the song being played, Ram Jam “Black Betty” but where is the Kanye? Three songs later Kanye West made it to the Hoboken International Film Festival too.
Last night the great actor Paul Sorvino received The Lifetime Achievement Award. It was an honor to be in his presence and play a song for him, which he danced and sang to without us planning on him doing so. Apparently, he appreciates Bobby Darin’s “Beyond The Sea” as much as I do! At events like the Hoboken International Film Festival, it is a fun challenge to guess what songs will match with what actor, celebrity or politician without communication from them. It is even more fun when I guess right like I did with Mr. Sorvino.
An amazing night with fun, excitement, inspiration and great music. Can’t wait till next year’s Hoboken International Film Festival.
